It is known to provide shields or guards for protecting critical or sensitive vehicle components from damage due to rocks, debris, etc. This is especially true for agricultural equipment and other "off-road" vehicles. Examples of covers or guards for transmission gears, universal joints, drive shafts and the like may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 926,800; 3,091,101; 3,111,821, 3,981,376; 4,308,931; 4,663,984; and 4,696,660.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,943 there is disclosed a U-shaped enclosure designed to prevent broken portions of a shaft itself from falling to the ground, and for limiting rotation of the broken shaft after it has engaged the enclosure.
There remains a need, however, for a simple, low cost and easy to install drive shaft support, adaptable for use with many different vehicle types and models, for preventing the drive shaft from falling to the ground in the event of a failure of the universal joint which connects the drive shaft to the vehicle transmission.